New guidelines on high blood pressure made headlines late last year because they suggest that nearly half of all Americans have hypertension—up from about one-third under previous guidelines. This is big news for fitness professionals because regular exercise is an excellent tool for regulating blood pressure. In this issue, we’ll review what you need to know about the new blood pressure guidelines.

Healthy aging is more than the absence of disease, according to the World Health Organization (WHO): “For most older people, the maintenance of functional ability has the highest importance” (WHO 2015). Colin Milner, founder and CEO of the International Council on Active Aging in Vancouver, British Columbia, echoes these comments. “When looking at the healthy aging market today, the focus is all about function,” he says.

Humans are hardwired to resist dietary restrictions. Science bears this out: In the absence of an ongoing weight maintenance program, half of the people who lose 10% or more of body weight gain it all back within 5 years or so (Montesi et al. 2016).

Core training can improve functional capacity and reduce injury potential. But accurately programming a successful, tailored and progressive core- training protocol can be a complicated endeavor. Now, researchers from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, have developed a model they hope gives fitness pros a solid platform to work from.

Do you find yourself checking your email and responding to messages well after you’ve “clocked out” for the day? While keeping up with emails after hours might seem productive, researchers from the University of Zurich in Switzerland believe this habit could have the opposite effect.
They launched an online survey in which 1,916 employees answered questions about work–life balance. For example, respondents were asked how often they thought about work during nonwork hours; the type and frequency of recovery activities; and exhaustion levels.

A new study from Bangor University in Wales affirms that body type influences a woman’s response to exercise, potentially affecting weight management success.
Female participants were assigned to either a 4-week or 8-week circuit training intervention. The women met three times per week and exercised at 50%–90% VO2 peak for 45–90 minutes per session. They were instructed not to diverge from their usual diets.

Get participants jumping with a combination of functional fitness movements and plyometric exercises that create an intense and enjoyable interval workout. The functional moves build strength and coordination, while the plyometric drills focus on muscle power and cardiovascular fitness. Together, they provide a total-body conditioning workout.
Functional-Impact Fun! Details:
Goal/emphasis: total-body fitness
Total time: 45–60 minutes

Have you ever tried to drink more water or stop eating fast food, but just not been able to sustain the new habit? Derrick Price, MS, programming officer at the Institute of Motion and adjunct faculty at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, explains the anatomy of a habit and gives you strategies to create new behaviors.

It’s good news that more people have an appetite for alternative proteins, as there’s power in plants. A study in The Journal of Nutrition associated higher intakes of plant protein with a more nutritionally adequate diet. What’s more, a Finnish study found that men whose diet favored plant protein had a 35% lower risk of type 2 diabetes than those who ate more animal protein, according to a 2017 study in the British Journal of Nutrition.newsletter_teaser: With a rising trend toward promoting and consuming plant protein, are you trying to include more in your diet? What are your favorite go-to plant proteins?